With many thanks to the biblioblogosphere

I have been so busy, tired and distracted of recent months, that I have barely been able to keep a straight thought in my head. Things have been changing, unsettled and unsure, nothing special really, just life I guess, but it has meant that my motivation to blog has taken a bit of a back seat of late. Many thanks to those who have stuck with me, I appreciate knowing you are there, checking out what I have to say and hopefully getting something out of it.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I have been thinking about the biblioblogosphere and all the library bloggers out there, sharing experiences, successes and failures, thoughts and processes and more. I started thinking about what these faithful people have done for me, without them even knowing about it and I had to start making a list.

If it hadn’t been for library bloggers I would never have:– started reading blogs– started reading the library literature more widely– started writing book reviews for the library literature– started reading outside my profession for parallel experiences and new ideas– started my own blog, to share my own experiences – discovered the amazing resources and programs available out there– participated in Learning 2.0 and become a champion for my library’s staff when doing the same– been invited to participate in a librarian group blog – Libraries Interact, with a great group of motivated librarians from around Australia– been motivated to apply for and receive the scholarship and conduct the study tour I did in April this year– pushed for my library to start its own blog– started using mashups on my library’s website – only just scratching the surface here though so far– developed increased confidence in myself, my skills and the new skills and inspiration I was receiving from your posts– asked to participate and then actually write a chapter for a book being published in the UK next year– gathering new inspiration and ideas to play with and hopefully translate into something my library service can utilise and better serve my patrons– had the confidence to submit proposals to library conferences in Australia– had the inspiration to write for the library literature in Australia (still working on that one).…. and that list is just off the top of my head, without any long consideration.

I have progressed more professionally in the last 3 years, than I had in the previous 19. Even though my job title hasn’t changed much, the work that I do, my love of it and my wider knowledge of the profession has grown exponentially (and there is potential in the job situation, so that may better reflect this development soon too).

And it’s all because library bloggers out there unselfishly decided to take the time to share their thoughts, experiences and more. They took a risk, put themselves out there, not knowing whether anyone would read and I again want to say thanks. I am more in love with my profession, my work and the life-long learning process that I am again engaged in, than I have ever been before. They are an inspiration to me, they give me inspiration to make the changes, small and large, to help make my library service better for our users – as a professional, I could not ask for a better gift from my profession.

So I am freshly motivated. By the posts I am reading, the motivations behind them and the people who create them. It is an honour to be numbered amongst them.

Goodness, what an exciting three years, Michelle. Congratulations on the book chapter – fantastic stuff. I agree that librarians are an incredible source of support and education for each other, they leave most professions for dead in that regard.

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Day 3 – Thursday 14th February 2019 Revitalising first nations languages: keeping culture strong in the digital world – Terry Janke Estimate that there are only 20 Indigenous languages being used in every day speech. 90% of languages are endangered and because they are an oral race, there is limits to what is written […]

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And here are my notes from Day 2 – not including of course, the presentation that I gave with my manager Daniel Lewis. ————————————————————————————– VALA Conference 2018 – Wednesday 13 February Plenary 3 – Linked Data Liminality – Matt Miller Matt is a Metadata Librarian, programmer/developer, adjutant at a library school, worked in public and […]

Wow, it’s been two years since I posted here. How do I know? My last posts were about VALA 2016. And now I am back with my VALA 2018 notes. I must post here more often. 🙂 Anyway, it was another great conference and it was my honour to be on the program committee to […]

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Building a Framework for Semantic Cultural Heritage Data – Valentine Charles Valentine works with the Europeana Foundation, which is the central portal for cultural heritage in Europe. Europeana has a huge range of items from European countries, including content from and related to Australia. The European Library was the model on which Europeana was based, […]

Always take away great thoughts and ideas from VALA – here’s what I got from Day 1. Librarianship: saving the world one community at a time – Dr R David Lankes Technology advances have made the world a smaller place. Expectmorelibrary.com. Not all is well in the world and librarians have a part to […]

I was fortunate enough to attend the most recent of these annual events, with guest speaker Marianne Broadbent. She was a very thought provoking speaker. Hope you get as much out of my notes as I did from attending the session. Marianne Broadbent – Implementing 21st Leadership at Multiple Levels Good skills to have are […]